This week is Children’s Mental Health Week.

Now, more than ever, looking after our mental health is vital.

The theme this year is ‘Express Yourself’

Each day this week we will post videos and pictures sent in from our staff and children, telling us how they have coped with lockdown and the things they do to try and stay mentally healthy.

Also, look out for some games and activities you can try at home to help you express yourself and lift your mood.

Today, we have Mrs Bradley and Lara Ferguson (P5 and Rights Respecting School committee member) telling us about how they try to stay motivated and mentally healthy.

Activities 

Research shows that people feel more positive after singing to music than they do just listening to music.

Listen and have a sing-a-long to Labrinth ‘Express Yourself’    

Sing out, sing loud!  

Please find a link to our video of some of our children reciting Scottish and Burns poems.  Unfortunately, we are unable to hold our annual celebration and competition this year, but we still wanted to showcase the talents of our children.  A huge well done and thank you to everyone who sent a recitation, we have included them all in the video. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=izG4sQYMKmk

Our P6 and 7 children are currently working away on their Burns’ Supper tasks.  We will choose some of their contributions and share our virtual Burns’ Supper with you over the next week or two. 

We hope you enjoy the children reciting their poems, they have all done a fantastic job and as always, we are extremely proud. Well done!

Children’s Rights (Jan-Feb)

Article 6 – The right to life, survival and development

Have a look at the PowerPoint below that explains what it means to have the right to life, survival and development. Discuss what you think about it at home and try some of the activities to help raise your awareness of this right.

RRS Article 6 – You have the right to be given what you need to survive and develop

Please find attached a flyer for a great opportunity for children to take part in some free online Karate classes from Senjokai Karate. The details are all on the flyer for sign up which goes directly to the club coach from the parent.

At this time of year we traditionally celebrate the life, times and works of our national bard Robert Burns and have enjoyed some really successful events over the last few years.  We are keen to encourage children to learn about Robert Burns this year despite the current situation.  We are always blown away by the talent of our children.

As we do every year, we have allocated a poem for each stage and encourage children to do their best to learn the poem.  If the children want to they can be recorded reciting their allocated poem and this can either be emailed to their teacher or uploaded to MS Teams to share with their class.

A video will be created of some of the selected performances to be shared with the school community to enjoy.

If you / your child would like to record their recitation please upload or email this by Wednesday 27th January.

Please see the table below detailing the allocated poems for each stage.  For the P5/6 class, if P5 children can learn ‘The Boy in the Train’ and P6 children ‘To a Mouse’.

I have attached links to each of the poems below the table.

Tam o Shanter

THE BOY IN THE TRAIN

TO A MOUSE

MICHAEL

THE SAIR FINGER

MY HOGGIE

UP IN THE MORNING EARLY

The emphasis is on enjoyment and we look forward to seeing and hearing some of the recitations.  They are always very entertaining and make us smile.

If any of our talented musicians would like to send a musical performance, this would also be very welcomed and can be shared with the school community.

Thank you

We would like to welcome all the children to the first week of online learning and wish everyone a Happy New Year!  I am sure you will agree that this is not the way that we ideally wanted to start 2021, but we need to make the best of this situation and we are here to support you as much as we can.

We fully appreciate that everyone’s circumstances are different, so please do what you can.

ECC

Links and activities will be posted on the app on a daily basis for you to access at home.  We will try to ensure that there is a wide variety of activities and links shared.

PRIMARY
ONLINE LEARNING

During this period of home learning, all teachers will post their weekly plans and resources on the school blog in their own class page. This will be done at the beginning of each week.  If you hover over the name of your child’s class, you will see additional tabs appear. We have created a new one for each class, specifically for remote learning. This is where teachers will post their weekly plans and sometimes resources that can be used to support remote learning.

HOME LEARNING PACKS

We understand that access to digital learning is not suitable for everyone and we will be creating physical home learning packs again to support learning at home. Teachers will create the packs for each class stage and specific groups within these stages.  We will let you know as soon as the packs are available to be collected.

As stated above, there will be activities included in teacher’s weekly plans that do not require IT facilities.  The weekly plans will provide direction and instructions that will support learning at home and will include a variety of activities that the children should already be familiar with.

GLOW BLOG / TEAMS / BUG CLUB

Microsoft Teams will continue to be used as a communication tool for P3 – P7 pupils and their teachers. We have not reset the passwords for children, so they will still be able to access Glow and Teams using their previous login details. If your child needs their password reset or a reminder of their login details for Glow, Teams or Bug Club; please complete the form on the app to let us know.

LIVE / RECORDED TEACHER INPUTS

Following updated guidance, we will be moving towards an online learning model that includes live interactions.  These inputs from teachers will support the weekly overviews that will be posted on our Glow blog / school app each Monday.  As we move forward teachers will clearly detail in their weekly overviews when the teacher inputs and live interactions will be taking place.  Teachers will also detail when they are supporting in the hub.  On the days teachers are supporting in the hub, children will be directed to activities detailed in weekly overviews but teachers will not be contactable.  If any pupils or parents need to contact their class teacher for a particular reason (either on Teams or via email), please note that they will respond during their working hours.

The interactions may be in the form of:
– A pre-recorded lesson
– PowerPoint presentation with teacher audio pre-recorded
– Microsoft Teams live chat (P3 – 7)
– V-Scene live chat (P1 – 2, more information to follow)

The inputs will then be followed up with suitable activities and teachers will be available to communicate with children during set, allocated times.

SUBMITTING WORK

We look forward to seeing your children’s work.  P3 – 7 will be able to upload work to the MS Teams page and P1 and 2 children can email work to their teachers.  You can either scan work and email or take a photograph.

Staff email addresses:
Mrs Brady P1a – jacqueline.brady@eastayrshire.org.uk
Mrs Glasgow P1b – lorna.glasgow@eastayrshire.org.uk
Miss Hogarth P2a – megan.hogarth@eastayrshire.org.uk
Miss Adams P2b – rachael.adams@eastayrshire.org.uk
Mrs Coulter P3a – jane.coulter@eastayrshire.org.uk
Miss Dyce P3b – lauren.dyce@eastayrshire.org.uk
Mrs Brown P4 – agnes.brown@eastayrshire.org.uk
Mrs Hainey P5 – petra.hainey@eastayrshire.org.uk
Mrs Mitchell P5/6 – joan.mitchell@eastayrshire.org.uk
Miss Smith P6 – rebecca.smith1@eastayrshire.org.uk
Mrs Cowie P7 – lynsey.cowie@eastayrshire.org.uk

Thank you for your ongoing support. We fully appreciate that these are challenging times and we will work with you to support you and your children as much as we possibly can.

Dear parent / carer,

Under the Education (Scotland) Act 1980, children who are five years of age between 1 March 2021 and 29 February 2022, and whose parents wish them to attend school, should register for education during the week commencing Monday 11 January 2021 until Friday 15 January 2021. As a result of the current Covid 19 restrictions and to ensure the safety of all parents/carers and school staff East Ayrshire Council has developed an online registration form.

How to register

East Ayrshire Council P1 registration form will go live on their website on Monday 11 January 2021. Parents/Carers should go to https://eastayrshi.re/schoolenrolment

If you already have an East Ayrshire Council Customer Account you should select the “login” option. If you do not have a Customer Account you should select the “register” option.

• the first screen tells parents/carers about the online process
• the next screen is where you should fill in all the parent/carer details
• the next screen is where you fill in all of the child’s details
• the next screen is where you should list an emergency contact for your child
• the next screen is asking for health and medical details for your child
• the last screen relates to equal opportunities information

Once all mandatory fields have been completed you will be taken to the “evidence” page. This page requires Parents/Carers to photograph and upload their child’s full birth certificate and two proof of address documents. If you are unable to do this at this point you should click “No”. You will receive an email explaining how this can be done at a later date.

The next screen is where you make the decision whether your child attends Drongan Primary School or you make a placing request.

When the form has been submitted you will receive an email acknowledging receipt of your school enrolment application form.

We look forward to receiving the information about our new intake. Please do not hesitate to contact the school for any assistance

Thank you